117. Diary Entry by the Ambassador to Germany (Bruce)0
Arrived in Berlin. Rainy day. Office almost deserted. Had talk there with Hamlett—he and I see eye to eye on the local problems, and on what U.S. policy ought to be—and we hope is—in respect to them.
Rebecca Wellington and I motored over to the East Sector—“flying the flag” it is called. Why American Ambassadors sport two flags, a national and a diplomatic one, is unknown to me. So far as I have observed, this is not done by Ambassadors from other countries, and it seems a bit pretentious. East Berlin looked as dreary as ever, and the banal Stalinallee buildings dull as ditchwater. The people are, we are told, healthy and well-fed, but they must be unspeakably bored with their drab lives.
Back on glowing Kurfurstendamm, we stopped at the Hilton to sample the bar, then to lunch at home. Most of the houses in West Berlin are decked out with wreaths, and Christmas trees abound—in the East one saw nothing of the sort.
This afternoon, Cort Schuyler and Ham2 came to see me. We talked of how to defend our position in Berlin, without engaging in general war except as a last resort. SHAPE has certain ideas, and Cort wants me to talk to Norstad about them. Ham and I are not in favor of mere probing operations on the ground, as has been sometimes suggested. A few rails pulled on the tracks, a couple of bridges blown on the autobahn, would immobilize our military trains and convoys, and make us ridiculous, unless we were prepared to keep the routes open by the employment of substantial forces. Ham and I think, if the Soviets turn over checkpoint control to the GDR, we ought at once to move a souped-up division to Helmstedt, to show we really mean business. As always, one must reckon with the British and the French, who are much less inclined to a tough policy than ourselves, though they have gone along nicely on the change in standing orders. Under certain circumstances, we might have to act unilaterally, in view of our much larger capabilities and the far greater expectations entertained of us by Berliners and West Germans, but I fervently hope we will not have to do so.